From the makers of Who Do You Think You Are? (UK edition) – 'Empire's Children' follows the personal journeys of six celebrities as they retrace their steps through their multicultural past as the British empire collapsed post 1945 and mass migration to the UK began.
British society is in every way defined by its Imperial past. It is home to 2.3 million British Asians, 570,000 Caribbeans and 250,000 Chinese. Not to mention Cypriots, Australians and southern Africans. These people represent different cultures and divergent experiences but they all share a common heritage: they are the children (grandchildren, or great grandchildren) of Empire; and their lives have been shaped by that legacy.
In the second part of the 20th century, Britain relinquished control of 64 countries and half a billion subjects. During that period, many thousands of those same former British subjects fled their homes to build new lives here.
What were they hoping to find? Why did they want to come to the very country they'd fought so hard to free themselves from? What kinds of lives were they leaving behind? What was the reality of their new life here? And how was a British society itself shaped by their arrival and assimilation here? Real concerns that are very much in forefront of our minds in the multicultural melting pot that Britain is today.
'Empire's Children' seeks to answer these questions by concentrating on the personal and emotive journeys of six chosen celebrities as they retrace the steps which they – or their parents or grandparents– took in order to reach this country for the first time. They will cover Africa, the subcontinent, the West Indies, Australasia, South East Asia, Cyprus. In some cases, spend some time in the former colony and experience the motivations as well as the drama of the journey itself.
Empire's Children examines the relationship between the dismantling of Empire and the emergence of a vibrant multi–cultural society that Britain has become.
Contents:
Foreword
Prologue
Part 1: Rule Britannia
1. Gold and Plunder: Chris Bisson
2. Triumph and Disaster: Diana Rigg
3. The Second Empire: David Steel
Part 2: Almost Inevitable Consequences
4. War and Peace: Jenny Eclair
5. Bearing Up, Bearing Down: Adrian Lester
Part 3: Tis Not Too Late ...
6. The Second World War and its Aftermath: Shobna Gulati
7. Letting Go: India
8. To Seek a Newer World
9. Letting Go: The Caribbean and Africa
10. After the Raj: Immigration from South Asia
Epilogue
Resources
Index and Picture Credits
